Tuesday, July 15, 2014

How I Learned to Jump to Conclusions

The final installment in this series is finally here. After looking at these lists several times over the past couple of weeks, I’ve come up with several conclusions about the “best” beers in the world.

Believe in the hype

Is this beer rare? Is it released once or twice per year? Is it very hard to get? Do I have to stand in a line for it? Is the beer only sold from one location? Would I have to trade lopsidedly just to get it? Was last year’s better than this year’s?

If the answer to more than one of these questions is yes, then the beer is worthy of being in the top 50.

4 out of 5 dentists recommend...

IPAs. It must be true with how much the craft drinker apparently drinks them. In fact, there is an old saying, “Two IPAs a day, keeps the doctors away.” Sprinkle in something barrel-aged and something sour and you’ve got yourself a balanced diet!

Is it barrel-aged?

No?! Then I don’t want it. Seriously. “Normal” beers aren’t good enough to stand up on their own. They need to be aged in some sort of barrel to pick up some “spirit” taste like bourbon or whiskey. Otherwise, it’s probably not worth the time.

The typical journey of the beer palate. Allow for some discretion of course, but when I talk to other beer drinkers, beer geeks, brewers or industry professionals the story normally goes like that. Sooner or later you don’t need to be assaulted with aggressive flavors in beer. Your palate just wants something simple and full of flavor. It seems like the American craft beer geek isn’t there yet.

Zymurgy - The odd man out

This is the only list that featured a good amount of “regularly” available beers all around the country. Therefore, it cannot be trusted. Boulevard Tank 7. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Lagunitas Sucks. Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald. Zymurgy is a homebrew magazine so I suspect that a majority of people who voted were homebrewers (1+1=2!!!). Seems like homebrewers enjoy the simpler things. That or they just don’t have the time to chase around whales all weekend because they are homebrewing.